A very fast rugby winger or full-back,
tremendous ability to kick the rugby ball.

Incredibly elusive runner.
Great vision, great swerve, great dummy,
great change of pace. Exceptionally well balanced runner,
sidestep, his famous goose-step, very deceptive body movement.

So much ability combined with
daring and the willingness to have a go.

You will find huge amounts of information
and any number of clips featuring Campese.
He has a whole dvd of his own

"CAMPESE - Rugby`s My Life", which I have enjoyed watching.

Campo the controversial

David has also made a name for himself
as being somewhat controversial in what he says.

It`s great when someone answers
a question giving a real point of view
rather than what they believe they are expected to say!

One thing I have not heard him talk about
is an interesting incident featured on his dvd.

The Campo and Ackerman incident is fascinating.

You will find it on the dvd, included in scene 12 "Barbarian Glory".

You can have a look now
because someone has put it on YouTube

The story as told by Jones

The story is told by Australian rugby coach Alan Jones.

He tells how Australia thrashed Wales in a rugby Test Match.

At the after-test-function, according to Jones,
Welsh team member Ackerman
maligns the Australian backs
by expressing his opinion that
they did not play well that day.

Jones believes this opinion was voiced within hearing
of the Australian Rugby Test players
Michael Lynagh and Campo.

He suggests they may have regarded it as a sleight.
Alan Jones indicates he, Jones, certainly did.

Anyway.

The next week
Australia played the Barbarians
and who do you think was in the Barbarians team?

Yes, the very same player, Ackerman!

Now the incident

A Barbarian attack breaks down
close to the Australian 22.
Ella gets the ball,
shapes to move it wide
but passes back inside to Campese,
cleverly coming in from the blind-side wing and going through a gap.

Once through the gap, he has a straight run
of about 65 metres to the Barbarian line
with one man to beat.
That man was Acker-MAN!

What does Campo do?

He puts in a couple of faint (almost non-existant) sidesteps
with Ackerman still 10-15 metres away in front,
with little-to-no effect.

Ackerman keeps his distance,
falling back,
not committing himself.

According to Jones,
Campo could have run past him or passed
but chose to swerve from side to side
turning Ackerman "inside-out" and
humiliating him, reporting that the crowd started to laugh.

Much as I love Campo, this is how I see it.

Ackerman did a really good job.
He was covering back for the full-back
who had been beaten at the initial break.

He slowed down Campo by not committing himself
which enabled another player to tackle him
and almost prevented a try from being scored.

Campese didn`t run past Ackerman because he couldn`t run past
and he didn`t pass because no other player was better placed.

On a hiding-to-nothing,
Ackerman did well. Much better than many other players
would have done in the same situation.

Think a little, now.
Do you agree with me
that Peter deserves to no longer be a rugby nobody
or do you want to be on the side of Alan Jones
who was the Australian Rugby Coach at the time.